The “Wisconsin 14” – the 14 Democratic State Senators who fled Wisconsin in order to slow down passage of the budget “repair” bill proposed by Gov. Scott Walker and supported by legislative Republicans – still haven’t returned to Wisconsin, but according to Democratic State Senator Julie Lassa, an agreement could soon be reached between the 14 Democratic State Senators and some of their Republican counterparts:
Lassa said Friday that she and fellow Senate Democrats recently have been in discussions with Senate Republicans who also have concerns with elements of the bill, and stated those discussions soon could lead to an agreement.
“We have had some good developments. The lines of communication are clearly open. We have told Senate Republicans that if they strip out some of the policy items, such as the collective bargaining (item) and the changes to SeniorCare and BadgerCare … we could be there within hours,” she said. “Things are at a really critical point in time, and I am really hopeful that we will have a breakthrough within the next few days.”
While this is certainly an encouraging development, I’ll believe that there’s a compromise between Democrats and Republicans when I see it.
The Wisconsin 14 should not trust the R Senators. They need to stay strong until we can be certain Walker the Weasel won’t be using trickery. But, then again…I guess that day will never come…so…we need to do something to get Walker the Weasel out of the Capitol…ASAP.
I think it’s entirely possible that there are a handful of republican senators with both the heart and wisdom to see that Governor Walkers duplicitous machinations are tearing our state apart. I applaud them for communicating with the Dem senators, (which I’m sure is giving Walker fits) in trying to reach an acceptable compromise. I hope they reach one soon.
In the meatntime I agree that Walker should go ASAP. I don’t know how he can possibly govern after all of this. He’s a national laughingstock, and he’s a laughingstock in a whole lot of trouble.
He’s going to be facing questions from law enforcement and elected officials about what he and his cronies discussed regarding planting troublemakers in the crowds, and it seems all but certian that the GAB will initiate an investigation into what Peg Lautenschlager has identified as labor law, election law and ethics violations that occured during his phone call with Ian Murphy, the fake David Koch.
In eight short weeks Walker and his legislative allies have brought divisiveness, hostility, corruption, shame and disgrace, along with the national spotlight, to Wisconsin. It’s a debacle of the first order. If he has even a shred of integrity he’ll announce his resignation in the days or weeks ahead. He is Richard Nixon, not Ronald Reagan, and the sooner he recognizes this and takes the appropriate action, resignation, the better off all of us will be.
Gov. Walker will never resign, and unfortunately I don’t think he’s a national laughingstock, at least not in some circles. What Walker’s doing here in Wisconsin really has galvanized some of the far-right conservatives behind him.
We’ll see how the investigation into his telephone call goes…he may not have any choice but to resign.
Steve…great comment. One problem.
If Walker resigns, guess who becomes governor?
Ready for Becky?
Yeah, I am. She will be even more incapable of governing than Walker and, after all that has happened in the last two weeks, just as easy to beat in a recall election.
The bill is past the amendable stage in the Senate. So if the Republicans are dealing in good faith, we’ll see them take the bill back to the point where it can be amended before the Democrats even set foot in Wisconsin.
Walker was on Meet the Press today. He looked unsteady and unsure of himself. Everyone from David Gregory to Lawrence O’Donnell to Richard Trumka brought up the ” troublemakers” remark. This isn’t going to go away. Neither are the numerous violations identified by Peg Lautenschlager. Gregory pointed out to Walker that he’s alone nationally as a governor attempting such far reaching legislation. Walker tried to spin it that Wisconsin will be “unique”. His spin is growing mighty thin.
Walkers authority to govern this state has been seriously, if not fatally, compromised. The suspension of the arrests at the capitol is yet one more indication. There has got to be a lot of sentiment amongst republican state lawmakers that Walker is now, and will increasingly be, a political liability.
We may be witnessing the most rapid rise and fall of a Wisconsin politician in our history.
how did walker get away with answering a question about the “troublemakers” to it being the senators fault.
One of the things I certainly would not accept if I was a Senate Dem is this compromise idea of “sunsetting” the abolition of collective bargaining rights, because you know Walker will just line-item veto that.
Given that the Assembly GOPs passed the bill through “as-is,” since they didn’t have the guts to amend it themselves, I’m not sure there’s any Senate compromise to be had, because there’d still have to be a conference committee to decide the bill’s final nature.
Until the Senate GOP strips the collective bargaining items and other nonbudgetary power grabs out of the bill, I think the Dems should stay out of state. This remains a very bad bill that will take a whole lot of effort to reverse after Walker and the locksteppers who vote for this get run out between now and November 2012.